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Akihiro awoke to a strange noise and instantly sat up on guard. It sounded as if some kind of animal was either choking or throwing up; he couldn't tell which it was. Scanning the brush, he finally saw a strange creature perched on a branch outside of the cave. It looked like a cross between a bird and some sort of tree rodent, like the squirrels he always saw depicted in childrens books growing up. The animal, or whatever it was, had fluffy triangular ears with the breast and feet of a bird and thankfully it was far enough away not to be of any concern to him.

He could see it coughing something up, each time it made a gagging wretch and then swallowing it back down. The weird wildlife on these planets never ceased to amaze him, even after experiencing quite the wide variety of exotic specimens in his deployments. This thing reminded him of a bullfrog filling it's throat with air before releasing it to make a large croak; but in this case, the creature was just spitting out it's insides to make a gagging sound. What is the point? Without much warning, it skittered away into the foliage as if it had sensed his distaste and was insulted.

He then turned to see how Misaki was doing. It was light out now, and looked like it had been for at least an hour. They should consider getting a move on, if it was possible. She was still asleep though. He wondered if she had knocked her head badly enough during the fall to cause a concussion. He crawled to the edge of the rock and lowered his hands down into the water to wash them. With that done, he returned to Misaki's side, and gently opened one of her eyelids. The pupil did not respond much to light and that worried him.

He looked down at her clothing, covered in mud and then to his own dirty uniform and grimaced. "We need to get these clothes off. We might catch our death and it's just plain disgusting," he said as though he were talking for the both of them. Akihiro removed all of the gear from his uniform first, placing it in neat piles on the ground. He then unzipped his coveralls, pulling the sleeves out with ease before dropping the rest of the suit to the ground. Thankfully his undergarments were still clean, so he'd have something to wear while he was waiting for the clothing to dry. He brought the uniform over to the stream and rubbed the cloth between both of his hands vigorously, scrubbing the dirt out of it. It took a long time to get it all out, but finally it held a semblance of being clean. Outside of the cave he found a large boulder, and hung his outfit over it, keeping it as vertical as possible without it falling off.

Akihiro returned to Misaki, kneeling beside her, and looking her up and down. He wasn't sure what the best way to go about doing this was, so he attempted first to wake her up so she could do it herself.

"Misaki?" he asked quietly at first. Then more loudly, "Misaki?!" He shook her shoulder slightly in an effort to rouse her, but she simply groaned at him. "I'm going to take your uniform off, alright? It's DIR-TEE," he said stupidly as if he were talking to someone who was hard of hearing. She made no response and so he carefully rolled her to her back and slowly pulled the zipper down on her jumpsuit. He paused for a second, as she stirred and her face turned slightly towards him. She did not wake up, but Akihiro couldn't help but be enchanted by the expression on her face. She had mud caked on the back of her neck with spots of it splattered onto her cheeks, but he couldn't deny she was a beautiful woman.

"Pure thoughts, Aki, pure thoughts," he said out loud like a mantra to keep himself in check as he continued to complete the task at hand. He pulled the uniform down around her body, sliding her arms out as gently as he could. The wet uniform clung at her round hips, so Aki stood up and squatted over her to draw it down past them. It was that point that he realized he had completely forgotten to remove her boots. Taking the time to untie them and loosen the laces, he propped his hand around her ankles one at a time to dislodge the rigid combat boots and then continued to slip the jumpsuit off.

With her uniform removed, Akihiro couldn't help but notice the simple high-waisted briefs and matching black undershirt she was wearing. He could see the outline of her nipples even in the dim lighting of the cave entrance and bit his lip sharply as he realized she wasn't wearing a bra. "Ugh, this is impossible," he groaned before taking a deep breath and centering himself again.

Suddenly, Misaki shivered as goose bumps erupted on her flesh. Akihiro looked around dumbfoundedly, wishing he had some extra clothing to warm her up with or even an emergency blanket. With as fast as everything had happened, he had not thought to grab any of the supplies from his mecha and he didn't dare to go back for it now.

Akihiro steeled his face, determined to take the best care of her that he could without being a lecherous creep. He turned his attention back to the filthy jumpsuit and got up from his crouch to wash it. Her suit had gotten really dirty and it took him much longer than he had hoped to clean it. Once done, he hung the uniform on another rock, trying to give it as much sun as possible in hopes that it would dry faster.

When he returned to Misaki's side, he found her shivering much more. "I wonder why she's so cold?" Aki asked out loud. "It's not that bad for me, but I guess it's no use." Even though the thought of it embarrassed him to no end, he couldn't have her freezing to death. He sat beside her, and attempted to lift her onto his body. Her limbs were limp and unruly like a ragdoll, but he did the best he could to maneuver her carefully. Finally, he managed to get her onto his lap; she sat almost sideways and he had to use his arms to hold her close to him lest she flop down again.

It had been difficult, but he felt relief when her shivering began to relent and her body temperature rose. He scooted backwards on his butt, trying to slide towards the back of the cave to achieve some relative support.

Akihiro held her for an hour and a half before he absolutely had to take a break. He simply couldn't feel his arms anymore and wasn't sure if it was possible to keep his grasp on her. He also wanted to check on their clothes and see if he should flip them over by now. He placed her back down on the bed and headed out to check on their suits.

They were still very wet, so he opted to hang them from a tree branch instead. He took the time to find a spot that still got plenty of sun. He'd prefer to start a fire to help keep them both warm as well as dry the clothing quicker. Besides the risk of getting caught though, he also had to worry about leaving Misaki in the chill for too long.

Satisfied that their garments were in the optimal position Akihiro returned to his ward, sitting down with a thump beside her. "I don't think I can pick you up like that again," he told her even though she clearly wasn't listening. He laid down behind her and pulled Misaki towards his chest. "I hope you'll be warm enough," he whispered worriedly as he laid his head down on his arm.

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He kept his mind busy with a fond memory, recalling one of the only ball games his father had ever taken him to. It had been a huge stadium with fake green grass lining the field. His father had told him all about the history of baseball on Earth and they had shared peanuts and hot dogs.

It was all he could do to keep his mind focused away from the fact that he now lay beside a gorgeous woman with very little clothing between them. Aki considered himself an honorable man, but he was still finding his thoughts wandering to less virtuous ones. He had entered the Legion young, as many had before him. While he had been with a couple women before, they were mostly drunken one night stands. In the Legion, you didn't get the chance to have any kind of meaningful relationships. He simply hadn't had this kind of experience often enough to be comfortable with it.

Thankfully, the novelty of the situation quickly grew to boredom as he waited for what felt like an eternity before she finally began to stir. It actually shocked him up from her side as he had been so used to her near catatonic state. She slowly rose to a sitting position, pulling her knees into her chest and rubbing her head.

She looked around dazedly, not sure where she was and asked, "What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Akihiro asked her confused.

"Not really..." she said. Misaki looked down at her lack of clothes and pulled her legs in tighter still to her chest wrapping her arms around her knees.

"I didn't do anything! It's just.. It's just.." Akihiro stammered, unable to get the words out, he pointed outside to the rocks and their drying jumpsuits. Misaki glanced over and saw what he meant, then simply nodded.

"You fell in the mud and I had to go into the mud to get you... And our suits were just caked with the stuff. You were passed out and not responding and I figured since I'd be here for awhile waiting for you to wake up that I could at least get our clothes cleaned for when we depart." Akihiro said the entire defense with an incredible speed.

"Ok.." she said somberly.

"OK?! Well you took that better than I expected..." Akihiro said perplexed. "Are you sure your head is alright?"

"I don't know. It feels really sore here..." she said to him as she touched to a spot behind her right ear. "It's kind of coming back to me... although it's a little blurry. I ejected...and that Crossfire was coming for me..." She loosened up slightly, rubbing her head. "You defended me in the Tenshin... I don't remember much else."

Akihiro relaxed, his Commander mode kicking back into gear as they spoke of the battle. "Yes, I got that bastard too, but not before he legged me. The force of my fall sent you flying into a trench and I ejected to find you. I had to leave the Tenshin behind. You didn't hear it over comms because you had already ejected, but they got Sakamoto too. There were more of them, I couldn't stick around to see if the mecha was salvageable. I wanted to get you and get out of there as fast as possible before their reinforcements came."

Misaki nodded, her head still seemed a little fuzzy, but she was clearing up more and more.

"I'm still not sure we're out of the water," Akihiro warned. "To be honest we should leave as soon as possible and try to find a way to make contact with the Legion." He stood up and walked out to the mouth of the cave, taking in the landscape to try and decide the best way to proceed.

His thoughts were interrupted as he soon heard soft gasps coming from Misaki's mouth. He turned back to see what she was doing and was startled to see she was crying. Fat tears kept falling from her eyes despite her efforts to wipe them clear with the edges of her knuckles. Akihiro stared at her with his mouth agape, unsure of what to say or do.

"I can't even die right," she said sobbing.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, Misaki!?" Akihiro cried out.

"I don't want to live this life anymore. You should have let me die like the rest of them," she said coldly, disassociating from him as she spoke the words.

He rushed to her side, attempting to hold her in an embrace, but she fought him. Swatting her hands at him and trying to push him away, he couldn't be persuaded by her and eventually she relented.

"I don't know what brought you here, Misaki, but your life is too precious to throw away," he said trying to soothe her by holding her tightly and smoothing her hair down with his other hand.

She cried more until she had finally had her fill of it and became silent for a time. He felt her shift around as if she were becoming uncomfortable and so he backed away slightly, remembering again now that she was half naked as well as he was. He scooted aside from her, trying to give her some space and hiding a slight redness in his cheeks.

Misaki looked at him, the life having returned to her eyes if only for the time being. "There was a man," she said after an eternity of silence. She bowed her head again, looking down at the ground. "He became obsessed with me. Even though it was completely inappropriate. I was married."

Akihiro gasped at the thought of her being married. He never saw a ring and she couldn't have been older than 24, so the thought had never occurred to him.

"We both worked at a mecha construction plant. He was actually an engineer, and I was more of a grunt, hired as security to patrol the facility and keep any would-be attackers at bay. I never really saw any action, but I had a lot of experience piloting. We met by chance, but it was one of those situations where we just hit it off so well. He just had a way about him, and I was smitten. We got married pretty soon after that and life continued as it had, just happier. Until that man showed up..."

Her brow furled downwards in a frown and her eyes looked like pointed daggers. "He was some big head honcho, doing the official rounds to all of his holdings and I was just unlucky enough that he noticed me that day. He cornered me in the changing room while I was unarmed and likely would have attempted to rape me if some other workers hadn't come by and interrupted him. I ran to my husband as soon as it happened at work, and he lost his mind. Hunting the man down to have it out with him. I told him not to, but he wouldn't listen. The man had him killed on the spot by his bodyguards. Being security myself, I pulled my rifle out and shot his head full of holes right then and there. I took his guards out with him."

Akihiro stared at her with intense concentration, listening to the story unfold. She lifted her head back up to look at him and continued.

"Since he was someone important, some baron with ties to the Imperial line, they weren't willing to just send me to jail or kill me. And having piloting experience meant that they could find a better use for me. His family had me sent here to dishonor me. So, now you understand..." she said plainly. "I want to die. This was all just insult to injury. I'm already a walking corpse."

"I can't believe that," Akihiro refuted. "I've seen plenty of life in you... And competence I've not seen many of my male comrades possess. You saw Sakamoto. He could barely keep it together."

"There's nothing to be afraid of when you're ready to die," she said morbidly.

"Then why did you eject?" he asked with frustration.

"I don't know... Cowardice or maybe instinct. Who can tell in the heat of the moment?" she argued.

"Bullshit," Aki combated her depressive logic. "You've had a rough time of things and maybe you think you're better off dead, but I can't believe you really want that."

She reached out to the pile of gear that Akihiro had placed on the ground beside the bed and began throwing the small objects at him. First a compass and then a flashlight went flying past his head.

"Damnit, woman! Would you cut that shit out!?" Akihiro yelled at her. She ran out of things to throw at him, and he crossed his arms in annoyance. "Are you done, then?"

She looked off to the side sullenly, refusing to answer him. He decided it would be best to check on the jumpsuits as this rescue operation wasn't going anything like what he had planned. He thought she'd be thankful, but of course he had to be stuck with someone with a death wish. He reached the clothing and exclaimed with relief since they were finally dry enough to get going. Akihiro threw the clothing at her before opening up his own and lifting his feet into each pant leg.

"We're leaving," he said sternly.

She took the jumpsuit and began to get dressed but didn't respond much besides making a sound of annoyance. Akihiro gathered up his gear and placed the items back into their respective pockets and loops. After getting their boots laced and tied, they were ready to travel. "Let's go!" he chuffed loudly.